Smears, Fakes & Phantoms: Cold War Britain's Secret Propaganda Department

In Cold War Britain, a secret propaganda department saw its list of targets and tactics widen. Personnel inside the Information Research Department went beyond forgeries, fakes, and plants, conducting bold impersonations to smear critics and stoke tensions among foes. The team, which consisted of refugees, ex-journalists, and even daughters of aristocrats, hatched a slew of audacious operations across Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. They also had their own internal dramas. Author Rory Cormac pored over thousands of recently declassified files to uncover and chronicle their work in his book Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line. Subscribe to Sasha's Substack, HUMINT, to get more intelligence stories: https://sashaingber.substack.com/ For more information about the International Spy Museum, visit: https://www.spymuseum.org/ And if you have feedback or want to hear about a particular topic, you can reach us by email at spycast@spymuseum.org. This show is brought to you by N2K Networks, Goat Rodeo, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. This episode was produced by Flora Warshaw and the team at Goat Rodeo. At the International Spy Museum, Mike Mincey and Memphis Vaughan III are our video editors. Emily Rens is our graphic designer. Joshua Troemel runs our SPY social media. Amanda Ohlke is our Director of Adult Education and Mira Cohen is the Vice President of Programs.

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